Very good point of view ... (though we discussed something similar earlier )
Re Agamic processes etc.,
the Sculptor prepares the sculpture of (say) Lord Muruga .. by selecting a right stone ( Aann (male ) Penn (female ) or vesaram (neither)), chistels away the unwanted parts from it and bring out the Muruga hidden into that .. !
He and his students carry this to the sanctum - after adopting due processes, help erecting on the Peedam .. ! Till such time it is STONE (Kal)..
Underneath the Peedam ( the Yantra is put, Agamic verses chanted) and after Muruga is erected in the sanctum and with final rituals concluded, Stone Muruga becomes LORD MURUGA !!
With more and more believers pouring in, we DEVOTE ourselves FULLY to the Manmade !
Alternatively, it can be as simple as a devotee realizing the Ultimate and transferring his energy to a nearby stone and that stone - becomes God, skipping the sculpturing part, you can find this in many a place, syambu lingams for example. Every lingam has been found by some rishi or other.
Or a great Sidhar forces God to stand still, out of devotion and builds him into a statue as in Palani.
Vedic process is one (stone-sculpt-mantra), devotional process is another. One is prescribed by acharyas other by people like civavakiyar.
That was a good enlightening one. But your last sentence "It is neither stone, nor God...". Personally, I am uncomfortable with the words "nor God". Well opinions might differ from person to person. Afterall these diversities keep the life interesting. With due respects to your opinion, my take for me is, anything that I look upon as God is God.
Please correct me if I have misunderstood something about your opinion.
I forgot this. When I said that whatever I see as God is God for me, it does not mean that they are only ones in which God is manifested. Afterall He is Omnipotent and Omnipresent. If I cannot see Him in all, but only a selected few, that is my limitation and "agnyAnam".
We all know the story of the saint (Was it Ramadoss or Kabirdas) who ran behind even a Dog, looking upon it as Rama and instantly got mOksha.
And we say Anbe Sivam. If we see Love in everything in the world and if it is Sivam, then even the un-consecrated idol or Sand Pillayar is a true Sivam or Kadavul.
SPS: No offense, Murugan harlot poi vanthara nu ketathukke naan offend agala :-) What avyar said is true and exists in real.
An incident happened in my life, hope i am allowed to share, when as a family we visited Thirukadayur temple, my daughter , 7 year old then,looked around in the sanctum and prostrated before the Ambal in a wierd direction, seeing which my uncle said 'Ambal anga irukka', my little one replied instantly, 'Yen Amma inga illaya' .... Oru mazhalaikku therinthathu nammul palarukku theriyamal irukkum.
Yes it is very true that people like Avvaiyar are in a completely elevated platform. But afterall, all those advices that they gave are for lesser realised souls like us. Afterall these incidents are narrated only for common people like us to realise and follow suit.
When Avvaiyar asks the question, which is recorded and passed on generation down, as to which side God is not there, it was only to make others realise the fact that God is everywhere. Do not limit Him to only your thoughts.
NammAzhwAr says,
".... yadhAnum paRRi nIngum viradham..". This is better explained with an example. Consider that some one is giving a lecture on spirituality. I call my friend to attend this along with me as I find it really good and useful. But this friend of mine does not have enough (pre)understanding of the subject. Though he is interested in attending it, he is afraid that some one would make fun out of him for his ignorance and hence says "Sorry, I have to go to doctor and hence I wont be able to make it today", or some escapist reasons.
This escapism is what is quoted by Nammazhwar as "yAdhAnum paRRi, nIngum viradham". It is interesting to note that he calls it a Viradham, meaning that these people would just want to give reason to escape and do that ritualistically and in a very determined way. He goes on to say that "....viradhatthai, nal vIdu seiyyum mAdhAvinaip pidhuvai, thirumAlai vaNanguvanE". According to Nammazhwar, it is only Thirumal, who is both the father and mother, who will have to bless me from not getting into such Viradhams.
Expanding on this, when we say that such considerations like looking God in everything are only for highly elevated souls, then we are imposing a restriction on ourselves. These incidents of Avvaiyar are narrated to enlighten us. Hence in my humble opinion there is no segregation of Highly realised or Lesser realised souls.
So, I would like to conclude saying that all our ancestors have indeed struggled a lot to inculcate this habit of seeing God in everything on to all the human beings so that every one gets the benefit.
SPS, very well put!! I would not call it 'segregation' but different stages in spiritual evolution. God in a generic sense also is not related necessarily to religion - that is an oft made mistake especially in our country, poets such as Rumi and even Kabir did not sing about a religious God and yet they were very evolved spiritually.
The 'dis belief' is again probably the way 'athiesm' is preached in our country. Modern atheists place huge emphasis on being humanitarian, mutual respect, and a belief system to fall back on when life does not go the way expected. Many athiests in fact just prefer to be called humanitarians instead of athiests since it says something about their belief and not disbeleif.
God is there or not there is subject to the individual but what exists without any iota of doubt is Karma and the math of anomalies in life. We have Newton and Einstien proving them over too.
Substitute the words LIFE for SIVA and replace the lines Anbe sivam.